Indian bobble head explained

The Indian bobble head explained by my colleague and friend Rinda Sama. (The Indian bobble head was recently a subject for the NBC show, “Outsourced,” based on a movie of the same name.)

The Indian bobble head is also known as Indian head bobble, Indian head wobble, Indian head shake, or Indian head wiggle. Thanks to my colleague and friend Rinda Sama for the explanation.

Rinda explains, “For well over 400 years, Indians were ruled by the British Empire and before that it was all monarchy. And people were afraid of saying no as an answer.”

Neither the British nor the monarchy liked to hear ‘no’ as an answer.

Rinda continues, “They don’t care. It doesn’t matter if it’s feasible or not. They just want to hear ‘yes.’ So people were afraid and instead of saying a strong ‘no,’ they would just nod their head this way and leave it up to the other person to judge whether it’s a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ and leave it there.”

The Indian bobble head means more than just “not saying no” politely.

Other Indian bobble head interpretations:

It could be “yes.”

It could be “no.”

It could be “I don’t know.”

It could be “I don’t care.”

It could be “You’ll take whatever you want to take.”

So there you have it, folks. When Rinda started explaining the Indian bobble head, I found it so interesting I had to capture and share it with you.